Now and then, we need to take a look at our industries and ask ourselves what the landscape is going to look like in five more years. Business protection can protect us against unforeseeable losses, but it’s not much help when there’s no business left to protect. Recent developments like 3D printing, the Internet of Things and Web 2.0-enabled innovations mean that more industries than not are changing shape. Whether your industry is dying, or simply suffering from a shrinking market, it’s worth planning for that future. You have a few options for adjusting to an industry whose future does not look bright.
Going Niche
If you look at the market for coffee right now, whole bean sales make up around a tenth of all sales, and that number is shrinking. This is in part thanks to coffee pods, which most people simply find more convenient than grinding and brewing their own coffee. Single-serving coffee doesn’t taste as good and doesn’t give you many choices for how you’d like to brew it if you prefer Turkish coffee or you boil it cowboy style or make your own espresso, but the average consumer simply doesn’t care.
This sounds like bad news for coffee bean sellers, certainly, but, people who like to grind their own coffee will always exist. We’re seeing a mass market becoming niche, and to the right entrepreneur, that is a golden opportunity. Customers in niche markets are willing to pay a premium price, and they spend a lot more time talking about their favorite products than do casual users who are looking only for convenience.
Diversifying
Expanding your brand into related or even unrelated industries can help you to maintain what you’ve built and use it to give you some momentum as you explore other avenues. Off the top of your head, you can probably name a dozen superheroes, but when was the last time you visited a comic book shop? A brand is more than its product. If movies ever suffer the same decline in popularity as comic books have, then Marvel will put more attention into producing television and video games. If you run a successful business, it’s because the market has put some faith into you. Will your customers follow you into another field?
Selling Out
Finally, you can simply sign the business over to the top bidder. There’s really no shame in selling a business if you’ve decided that you’d rather simply cut and run and build something new rather than try to make it work in an industry that isn’t likely to bounce back any time soon.
Source http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-15/the-coffee-revolution-is-just-too-efficient-for-hurting-farmers
